A common thread among many people who enter the LIFE Recovery program is an absent or abusive father. Samantha’s story reflects the devastating effects of fatherlessness on children, and on the adults they become.

Samantha was 6 when her mom took the kids and left her dad, who had abused them all. Her parents were both addicts, using drugs to cope with their grief from the sudden death of another child.

Samantha’s childhood was a blur of moving, running away from problems, never putting down roots.

“We would just move on the drop of a dime. I never made friends in school.”

As a regular volunteer at the Crisis Shelter, Ron noticed a pattern in many of the homeless women and children he served: Dad wasn’t in the picture. In many cases, the father had been abusive or just disappeared. Ron decided something had to be done to restore families to be what God meant them to be.

It’s a long road learning that you’re loved by God, who calls himself our Father, especially if you’ve never known your real father. That journey has been painful, tearful, and wonderful for me, and I’m grateful that my Father in heaven is walking it with me.